Herculaneum

Next day we took the Circumvesuviana to Herculaneum, tiny compared with Pompei. Herculaneum had a population of only about 5,000, and rather little of it has been exposed, owing to a) the toughness of the 60 feet of rock in which it is buried, and b) the encroachment of the modern city above. Nonetheless it has a number of memorable sites and features.

Entrance to Herculaneum

View of excavated Herculaneum



Vesuvius in the background

Not a moat...that's how far the city is down there...

Pretty incredible frescoes, in situ, at the House of the Augustales, a society of 
freedmen enjoying the privileges recently granted them by the Emperor Augustus

Ditto

Marble flooring

Outside an enoteca, as contemporary Italians would call it, a 
wine bar; four prices/varieties advertised; specializing in Nola, 
one of the preferred appellation controlees, so to speak

Serpent scuplture in one of the tunneled areas

Drunk Hercules

Nice atrium, peristyle garden, etc.

It was long thought that everyone got out of Herculaneum; until excavations found 
bones of scores of people here by the boat-houses along the (then) shoreline



At one of Herculaneum's many eateries

Cubby-holes in the baths (the women's baths, I think)

Caldarium--hot tub--note grooved ceiling: prevents moisture

dripping on clients

Interior, more incredible mosaic

Old and new Herculaneum

More mosaics